f all
the thousands scattered throughout the Ohio valley. The owner gave to
the museum the exclusive right of exploration, and the locality was
mapped and investigated with that scientific care which alone can give
the results entire credibility and value. Several of the thirteen mounds
within one of the encircling walls contained basins or "altars" of
burned clay, on two of which were literally thousands of objects of
interest, embracing forms unlike anything known before, and exhibiting
an unsuspected degree of cultivation in their makers,--cultivation
which, it is fair to suppose, could have been arrived at only after a
long period of peaceful and prosperous life in the community. I have
space to mention only a few of these articles.

One altar contained about two bushels of ornaments made of stone, mica,
shells, pearls, and the teeth of bears and other animals. Pearls were so
plentiful, indeed, that as many as sixty thousand are in the possession
of the museum. They seem to have been derived mainly, if not wholly,
from the fresh-water mussels, and are of all shapes and sizes, out of
which might be selected hundreds of perfect spheres, from the size of
bird-shot to that of a cherry. What splendid necklaces must the latter
have made! But, alas for the mercenary collector, all are ruined by
fire,--a fact advantageous to science. Like nearly all the other
objects, every pearl is perforated for suspension.

Articles of copper are none too common anywhere, and the collection of
relics hammered from that native metal (which must have been obtained,
through barter, from the tribes that mined it on Lake Superior, showing
how extensive were the tradings of those days) has not only thrown much
light on this branch of ancient art and craftsmanship in America
generally, but added some peculiar forms to the museum's stock, chiefly
in the line of pendent ornaments. One of the forms procured, represented
by many specimens, was a spool-shaped ear-ring: something like it had
been seen heretofore, but its purpose had been a mystery. Several of the
ornaments of copper were covered with native silver, which had been
hammered out into thin sheets and folded over the copper. A few were
similarly covered with gold; and this is the first time this metal has
been found in the mounds.

This would show that beauty was highly appreciated by the natives of the
Little Miami valley, say, a thousand years ago. That they had a real
regard for art